Blogs > Liberty and Power > Republican Transformation

Sep 5, 2008

Republican Transformation




Right after the convention ended, a PBS commentator noted that the Republican party had been transformed over four days -- from defeatist and dispirited to thrilled and optimistic. Most of that was due to Sarah Palin’s selection (and we shouldn’t rule out the impact on morale of having the presidential nominee flanked by two beautiful women, Palin and his wife, Cindy).

In his acceptance speech McCain intelligently and artfully revealed his own transformation through his Vietnam experience -- from cocky and self-reliant soldier (read, George W. Bush, perhaps) to a humbled servant dedicated to his country. His speech was, ultimately, inspiring.

One thing bugged me though – McCain’s comment on Obama. McCain started to express respect for Obama as an individual (I thought) but then began quoting from the Declaration of Independence about equality and our inalienable rights. That sounded to me as though he was saying that Obama, even though he is black, is an equal – patronizing, I thought, and not called for. But maybe others heard it differently – with politics, I sometimes pick up on the wrong things.


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Jane S. Shaw - 10/25/2008

Thanks (again, my apologies for not responding earlier; I had trouble getting to the comments -- still working on the mechanical details of blogging). For me, five years in a prison camp makes a person a hero, and I give him some slack. That doesn't mean he'd be a good president, but none of our options is good.


Jane S. Shaw - 10/25/2008

Good points. (Allan, I was having trouble reading comments earlier, so I'm just getting to this). I can't remember Cindy's speech although I do remember the video leading up to it, which seemed a bit much.

Ah, we'll see what happens, won't we?


Lester Hunt - 9/8/2008

I just looked at the complete text of the speech, and he brought up their (M's and O's) shared belief that all men are created equal as an example of the fact that what they share in common is more important than what divides them. It didn't look at all like he was saying "even you are my equal." But, like Allan Walstad, even if he had been a bit patronizing toward O, I would have had much more serious problems with the speech than that.


Allan Walstad - 9/7/2008

Sort of like Biden's botched reference to Obama as fresh and "clean" during the primary season? Jane, I wish that a little unseemly patronizing of Obama was the worst of my concerns about McCain or those parts of his speech that a forced myself to listen to. If there was an inspiring speech at the RNC convention, it was Cindy McCain's.